Fragnetics and Starhub Steam up Singapore

Fragnetics and StarHub have signed an agreement to jointly host a dedicated Steam Content Server for Singapore users of the Steam software distribution platform, promising faster downloads of games and updates through Steam.
Under the agreement, StarHub will provide Fragnetics with a 1 Gbps link to Starhub Subscribers at a discounted rate, as well as share hardware costs related to the Steam Content Server. Fragnetics will also host some of their game servers on this line.

In return, StarHub will get branding on all game servers hosted on the 1 Gbps link. This includes the appears of the StarHub brand in the server name, as well advertisement banners in-game.

The new Steam Content Server promises to reduce the amount of time gamers have to wait on the now infamous “Downloading Steam updates” dialog and new game patches to download by serving the files and updates directly from the Singapore network instead of an overseas server.

According to Mr Christopher Choo, Manager of Fragnetics, the Steam Content Server goes a long way in showcasing Fragnetics’ capability in hosting high-bandwidth content. He explained, “[This] is important because we want to host a wide variety of games, and publishers worldwide need to gauge our operational capability.”

Mr Choo went on to state that the agreement will also serve to promote both Fragnetics’ and StarHub’s services. He explained, “[W]e think that a good way to reach out to gamers is through online channels – hosting a Steam server is one such way.

“Also we want to inform gamers that we have this very fast StarHub line, and that SH subscribers will get the best gaming experience on our servers hosted at StarHub. That’s how the collaboration between Fragnetics and StarHub came about.”

Those who are worried that the high-bandwidth operation requirements of the Steam server might compromise play quality on Fragnetics’ game servers have nothing to fear. When queried about this possibility, Fragnetics Assistant Manager Benedict Chan explained, “[N]o, we have a very powerful router capable of advanced QoS.”

QoS is a networking term meaning Quality of Service, which refers to “control mechanisms that can provide different priority to different users or data flows, or guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow in accordance with requests from the application program”, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS]according to Wikipedia[/url].

Mr Chan also went on to explain that Fragnetics was unable to extend the Steam server service outside of Singapore as they were unable to acquire affordable international bandwidth. He said, “[W]e wish we could serve the region, however, there are limitations because of bandwidth costs. We … can’t afford to Steamify the region.”

The Fragnetics/StarHub Steam Content Server is already up and running, and to ensure that you are using it, delete the “ClientRegistry.blob” file in your Steam install folder and restart Steam. Users can verify that they are being served by the Singapore Steam Content Server when Fragnetics/StarHub advertisements appear in the Steam client software.